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Almost time.
She’s shaking harder now, no longer hiding it or trying to. Maybe she is just too tired from standing that long on weak legs.
“A hundred and five,” I make my bid, starting slow.
“A hundred and ten thousand,” a different male voice booms, and she lets out a weak gasp, not of relief but of fright.
The voice sounds Hispanic, but everyone here knows that no voice sounds anything like the real voices. The mics are programmed to alter voices and accents, but from inside your cubicle, you can see what cubicle the voices are coming from.
I lift my eyes to look at the micro screen at the top of my cubicle showing the number twelve. That's Camorra. The fucker is always on my trail. Now he wants what I want?
“Going for a hundred and ten thousand dollars,” Botched Nose shrieks into his mic. He looks around like he can see us.
I press my index finger on the red button.
“A hundred and fifty,” I sit back, relaxing. I don’t have the time to play around with the Camorra.
Her lips part slightly, and she gasps again, her bony ribs showing her drawing in the air.
Claudio has a smirk on his face. He reaches into the pocket of his dress pants… let him not pull out a coin. Damn it! He pulls out a coin. That shit is distracting but calms him. He starts to toss it in the air, and I fight the urge to toss him and his coin out.
“A hundred and fifty,” Botched nose lifts his hammer to slam.
“Two hundred,” from the same damn cubicle.
“Three hundred,” I ball my fist.
“Three hundred and fifty.” Caruso is having fun.
Fuck me. He told me the number of his cubicle for a reason and waited until I walked into mine. He knows it is me. He has been waiting for me to make a bid on any of the products. This long dragged-out stupid game of who is superior is getting under my skin.
I fell right into his trap when I continued with the bid. I can let her go and just wait for another one to come out. I can let him have her, let him win just this time. But I like a good challenge. She is the first product he’s making a bid on, so it will be good to beat him to it in his domain. Sick, but I like it. There’s a part of me that likes to think that what is mine came with a little bit of challenge. That I earned it, just like everything else in my life.
I want her. It’s a matter of honor now, and I’m not one to lose. There’s only one thing to do to make him stop, set the bid so high he’ll think I’m insane. That is probably what he wants. Giving him that is not as bad as losing her to him.
“One million,” I offer. Let’s end this tussle. My tolerance is low.
I do not miss how, for the first time since the spotlight came on, she lifts her eyes to look at my cubicle.
Claudio is staring at me like I’ve lost my mind. At least he is no longer tossing.
Why spend more on a property than the seller is asking for?
Because a few weeks from now, this property will carry a name that is one of the most powerful names in the whole of New York State.
This property will be my woman.
My wife.
Mine.
And that doesn’t come cheap.
I hope to hell she is worth every penny because otherwise Claudio will face my anger for this stupid stunt.
For his sake and hers, she better be.
Chapter Two
